Within the next few weeks, the Nantucket Conservation Foundation will be initiating a project to remove non-native, invasive Japanese black pines (Pinus thunbergii) within a 2.03-acre management unit in the Middle Moors along Altar Rock Road, immediately to the northwest of Altar Rock. This work will improve habitat for rare plant, invertebrate and animal species,…
By Dr. Jen Karberg, Research Program Supervisor Last Saturday was World Wetlands Day – a day designed to celebrate the beauty, ecology, value and uniqueness of wetlands around the world. These days, it’s no argument how important wetlands are from marshes that provide homes for ducks and fish to raingardens in splendid summer flower capturing…
While Nantucket can’t usually lay claim to epic snowfalls and frigid temperatures, the colder months bring a chilly dormancy to most plants. Rather than expose their leaves to the freezing temperatures and desiccating salty winds, most of our plants and trees shed their leaves. Conifers such as pitch and Japanese pine, and red cedar with…
By: Danielle O’Dell, Ecologist/Field Supervisor This may not be the time of year that you would typically think would be great for finding bats but we are hopeful that we might get a few reports from the Nantucket community! During the winter, Northern long-eared bats hibernate. In other parts of the Northeast, they are known…
by: Libby Buck, Ecological Stewardship & Research Technician The National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count just celebrated its 120th birthday, making it one of one of the longest running citizen science projects. Up until 1900, it was a Christmas tradition for hunters to go out on Christmas Day and hunt as many birds as they…
As we get ready to celebrate the holidays and close out 2019, we would like to take a moment to commemorate the Foundation’s upcoming 56th anniversary. On December 28th in 1963, a group of Nantucketers met at the home of W. Ripley Nelson, who was then the President of the Nantucket Civic League. They came…
Since beginning to work on the Nantucket Flora Update project, we have discovered more than 60 plants that are established on Nantucket, but were not included in the most recent island flora, Sorrie and Dunwiddie’s The Vascular and Non-Vascular Flora of Nantucket, Tuckernuck, and Muskeget Islands, published in 1996. While many of these “new to…
by Dr. Jennifer Karberg, Research Program Supervisor The impacts of climate change: increased sea level rise, increased occurrence of strong storm events, increased and more variable temperature and rainfall, temporal ecological disjuncts (ie plants flowering before their pollinators are around), and changes to natural communities (to name just a few impacts) all feel very immediate…
The Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative (NBI) just held its 8th Biennial Biodiversity Research Conference from November 1-3, and the Foundation’s Science and Stewardship Department staff ecologists were active participants in this collaborative effort. The NBI is a partnership of nonprofit organizations (including the Foundation), academic institutions, government agencies, businesses and individuals that formed in 2005 with…
We are very excited to have a Nantucket High School (NHS) senior, Lily Bartlett, volunteering for us approximately 8 hours per week for the entire school year as part of the School-to-Career program. This is the first time that the Foundation has mentored a student in this capacity. School-to-Career is part of a national program…